Focus on Customer Centricity Strong but Still a Struggle

“Obviously, something needs to improve. Something has been missed,” Mehta said.

It is tempting to imitate the Internet model and that model has its advantages. “The Internet model has provided an extremely productive environment for incubating new applications and service ideas, but revenue models for those are still being identified,” Mehta said. “The trick is how to evolve the products and services at the rate of acceleration we see in the Internet and how to profit from it.”

Convergence, should it happen, should make it easier to focus on the customer. Forty-four percent of companies believe that to be the case. But will it? Thirty-four percent believe convergence poses more of a threat to customer centricity than an opportunity. They say it threatens their revenue and margins.

To ensure that convergence works, the researchers developed seven secrets for successful customer centricity. The first is: don’t do it because everyone else is; make sure you are seeing business results. Other tips include: be prepared for tedious statistical analysis; listen to what customers are telling you, but also look at what they are doing; make sure people are using the tools you give them; and experiment with new modes of communication such as blogging.

However, there is also a new, potentially better way to know your customer: pay attention to what they are putting online. That is what interests the customer.

In addition, Oracle has a few tenants of its own for succeeding in being customer centric. The first is to partner with a company that understands the consumer business and shift your mindset from being a network operator to being a service provider and ultimately a retailer. Then it is important to put the business processes first and finally, enabling real;-time work flows. “That seems a bit obtuse, but the pace of change is changing and it is no longer enough to provide customer data that is a week old or even a day old. It has to be up to the minute,” Mehta said.

In a company-level assessment of Oracle in February, Stratecast Partners said the Oracle Siebel CRM is widely regarded as one of the world’s best CRM applications.

The report said that Oracle’s commitment to the industry also sends a clear message to competitors. “Oracle will use its position in the database, middleware and ERP sectors to extend its reach into the operator back office. This competition is healthy for the industry, as it should result in better overall platforms and more choice for operators.”